


Altogether Impossible

by Rosage



Series: A Handprint on My Heart [1]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/F, First Meetings, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27182296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosage/pseuds/Rosage
Summary: Nobody dares room with Hapi until Constance enters the picture. Hapi would rather she leave it—but maybe they’re both being hasty.
Relationships: Hapi/Constance von Nuvelle
Series: A Handprint on My Heart [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984274
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Altogether Impossible

Most people give Hapi’s room a wide berth. Outside her door, she’s left alone with the drip of the ceiling. That is, until a high, clear voice rings through the hall.

“Pardon me. Might you be Hapi?”

 _Not often_ , she wants to joke. Instead, she takes in the stranger, a pale blonde not much younger than her. Only the newcomer’s sharp eyes fit into Abyss.

“Yeah, why?”

“And these are your living quarters?”

“Yeah,” Hapi says again, slowly. Did the church send this girl?

“Rejoice, then, for you now share them with the one and only Constance von Nuvelle!” She throws back her shoulders, swinging her dyed corkscrew curls and earrings too big to parade around.

“Nobles are just vacationing in Abyss now, huh?” How much do tickets cost to the exhibit of Hapi: monster summoner?

Constance’s perfect little lips pout. “I would not say vacation. Perhaps an extended leave.”

Whatever. Hapi already feels a sigh coming on, which means this isn’t worth it. As evidence of Constance’s claim, she presents a key from Aelfric, and Hapi pushes the door open. Constance marches inside and halts in the center.

“I’ve gotta warn you, there’s a reason nobody bunks with me,” Hapi says from the doorway.

“Pish posh. I’ll not sleep in an alley when there are… functional beds.” Constance inspects them, prodding the mattresses before shoddily redoing the bedding. Of course she can’t manage without a servant.

“Then by all means, Princess, take your pick. Wanna check which one has a pea under it?”  
  
“You keep vegetation beneath your bedding?” That story must not have made it out of the village.

When Constance asks which bed is Hapi’s, she shrugs. “Used to be all of them.”

After claiming the top bunk farthest from the door, Constance messes with the desk opposite it. Surprisingly, Constance doesn’t speak much more, and Hapi readies quietly for bed.

* * *

Hapi curls up behind the library’s spiral stairs, hoping she’ll be left alone long enough to sleep. It’s usually a good bet in there. Usually.

After enough of listening to Constance chat with the books, Hapi says, “Would you mind keeping it down? Some of us are trying to sleep.”  
  
Constance yelps. “Is that you, Hapi? Whyever are you sleeping in the library when we have a perfectly serviceable dorm?”  
  
“I don’t know, why did you study all night in our dorm when there’s a perfectly serviceable library?” In the days since Constance arrived, Hapi has only saved Abyss from a monster onslaught by napping wherever she can.

“I cannot rest until I achieve my ambitions. To restore House Nuvelle to its rightful…“

Tuning out the already familiar rant, Hapi rolls over. She slides the nearest book to her and flips through it without absorbing anything.

“And when I become the world’s foremost magical researcher, the Empire will have no choice but to…”

Hapi’s thumb tears a page. Peeking out, she finds that Constance has gathered not only a mountain of books, but an assortment of chalk and bottles. Hapi presses closer to the stairs, feeling cold metal against her stomach.

“Trying to impress people like that isn’t worth it. They’re more likely to lock you up than reward you for creepy magic,” Hapi says.

“Excuse me? Nuvelle spellcraft isn’t creepy.”

“I’m just saying, you should save yourself the disappointment.”

“When I require your counsel, I shall ask for it,” Constance says, as if she hasn’t pushed her advice on everything from Hapi’s clothes to her eating habits. Hapi takes in a breath and swallows it.

“I know it’s none of my business. But it’s everyone’s damn business if you keep me up at night,” Hapi says.

Bottles clink as Constance continues her work. “Everyone? And people claim I _occasionally_ exaggerate.”

So she really doesn’t know. Did someone trick her into rooming with Hapi? _Poor girl_ , Hapi thinks. At least this should get her room back. She crawls out of hiding and sits on the rusty bottom step to explain.

When she’s done, Constance taps a bottle against her hip. Here it comes. Hopefully she’ll spare Hapi a diatribe and leave before either of them has major regrets.

“I heard vague rumors, but… Truly, any manner of sigh? That must be difficult to arrange your life around,” Constance says.

Hapi stares. “That’s—not how people usually react.”

“People are usually small-minded. Is this why we room alone?”  
  
“Yeah. People don’t even wanna be seen near me.”

Constance waves her bottle at nothing in particular. “Poppycock. Cowards, the whole lot. I suppose they expect your misfortune to rub off on them?”  
  
“Something like that.”

Those sharp eyes soften in a way Hapi wasn’t sure they could. In a way most people’s don’t, if it’s toward her.

“I can perhaps understand,” Constance says. For once, Hapi wants her to keep talking, but Constance turns to shuffle her papers around. Straightening, she lifts the bottle aloft. “Oh, I know! I can research a cure for your curse. These shelves must contain—”

“Yeah, as if being experimented on by a freaky mage isn’t how I got it in the first place?”

Constance flinches. It’s odd to realize she hadn’t before now. “I only… Very well. I have my own projects to focus on.”

Hapi returns to their room. She’d rather be avoided than be someone’s project.

* * *

That isn’t the last time Hapi tries to nap in the library, or the stables, or underneath the beds. It becomes harder not to sigh, especially when Constance takes it upon herself to ‘organize’ their room. How is Hapi supposed to find anything, let alone her stash of food and money?

“Would you at least not leave your belongings on the floor?” Constance asks one evening after tripping for the third time. Most nights, she paces across every free inch, ranting under her breath.

“Why don’t you work during the day, when you can see?”

“I cannot rest until—”

“Until you achieve your grand ambitions, blah blah. Look, everyone needs sleep. Don’t think I haven’t noticed those eye bags.”

Despite Constance’s protests, she ends up climbing into the bunk above Hapi. Hapi nuzzles into her pillow. Finally, a peaceful night.

She can’t be sure if she dozes before a groan echoes in the room. Whimpers follow in little bursts. Did a dog enter? How could she leave the door open? Rubbing her eyes, she hears noise from above. Oh, right. She doesn’t sleep alone anymore.

She drags herself up the ladder, half-expecting to find a monster attacking her roommate. Instead, Constance is curled in a ball, shivering where the sheet has slipped. Her muttering could be anything from an incantation to a list of names.

“Hey,” Hapi murmurs. “Hey, Princess.” She touches Constance’s quivering shoulder. It’s so bony, yet so soft, not that Hapi has much to compare it to. It jerks beneath her touch as Constance gasps. Hapi darts her hand away.

“Brother? This isn’t funny,” Constance says in a squeak.

In the palm that just brushed Constance’s cold skin, Hapi summons a small flame. It illuminates a raw, wet face. Constance throws an arm over her eyes.

“You, you’re—oh.” Constance clutches the sleeves of her nightgown and rolls over. “Cease. Go. Don’t look at me.”

The flame winks out. “It’s okay. I’m not gonna hurt—”  
  
“Go!”

Hapi returns to her bunk, where she reclines with her arms behind her head. “Bad dream, huh?”

Constance sniffles. “This is your fault for making me sleep.”

“Hey. I may not get it, but I can tell nights are hard for you,” Hapi says.  
  
“Nights.” Constance sniffles again, a sound she probably meant to sound snootier. “And what is night to one who cannot traverse the day?”

“That’s just poetic, right?” The village had tales for that, too, but she hasn’t seen blood in Constance’s teacup.

She watches the roof of the bunk. Just as she assumes Constance has passed out, an explanation carries down in tremulous pieces—soldiers clashing until the last, the razing of a land, and a child facing the sun’s blaze alone. Now that Hapi has glimpsed it, she can imagine Constance huddled with her knees to her chest, small in the darkness that shelters her.

“You must think me weak,” Constance says.

“Weak? After surviving something all those soldiers didn’t?”

“And yet I cower away, just to keep from being a shell of myself.”  
  
This, from the girl who hasn’t slept since Hapi met her? If fewer people tried to prove they were strong, not so many would be killed. No one would be squirreled away and turned into a weapon.

“Yeah, well, so what?” Hapi asks.  
  
“Pardon?”  
  
“I don’t care if you’re weak. You’re allowed to be, as far as I’m concerned.”

A hush falls. For the second time, Hapi expects to leave it at that, until Constance coughs. “I may have crossed a line before, when we discussed your situation. I must confess, should you claim to have a solution for my own malady, I would be most suspect.”

“I definitely don’t. But I don’t mind you waking me up, if it’s for something like this.”

“I don’t plan to be so vulnerable again,” Constance says. After Hapi closes her eyes, a whisper breaks the silence. “But thank you.”

* * *

As most people in Abyss’s market avoid Hapi, she explores it leisurely. The merchants can’t afford to stay away, but they give her special deals with grins straining their cheeks, clearly afraid to disappoint her. It’s almost worse than if they closed their stalls to her. Almost.

A voice rings out from behind her. “Hapi! Spending the morning at the market, are you?”

Constance all but skips up to walk alongside her. It’s odd for another shadow to stretch beside hers. They’re always uneven, as Constance keeps barging ahead, only to slow down. She flits from stall to stall, frowning at even the best deals.

A man on a crate slides off it as they pass. “Ooh, who’s this girly? A lost princess?”

Constance’s retort only makes him jeer harder, turning her face red. Hapi steps in front of her, stretching her arms overhead like she just happened to ooze into that spot.

“You know, if you keep bothering Coco, I might just sigh.”

The man skedaddles, as spineless as anyone. Anyone except Constance, who looks at Hapi as if seeing her for the first time. Her question isn’t the one Hapi expects.

“Coco?”  
  
“That jerk just ruined Princess, and Constance von Nuvelle is too much of a mouthful.” Hapi grins. “And we’re friends, so you’d better get used to it.”

“Friends?” Still flushed, Constance dips into a curtsy. “In that case, I owe you an apology. I have not always treated you with the decorum befitting a companion, and—”

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry, I’m sorry, too. Now, wanna get breakfast? There’s a great pickled foods stand nearby.”

Constance straightens her shoulders, and Hapi can’t help but remember the shape beneath her palm. “I have never consumed pickles for breakfast, but there's a first time for everything.”

She links her arm through Hapi’s, and the pair strolls forward.


End file.
